清淨道論 義疏通講 · 冊15Visuddhimagga · Exposition Throughout · Vol. 15
十二處——眼耳鼻舌身意與色聲香味觸法The Twelve Sense Bases—Eye, Ear, Nose, Tongue, Body, and Mind; Visible Form, Sound, Odor, Taste, Touch, and Phenomena
全文五層 →Full five layers →處是心的出入口：六內是門、六外是境，十二處把一切經驗攤盡，「我」在其中無處安放
大局 — 慧地的座標系（上半）
慧地在〈蘊〉之品開頭立過：慧的「地」就是蘊、處、界、根、諦、緣起這些所觀之法（第 14 品）。五蘊已在前品攤開，本品續開處與界——本單元先開十二處：眼、色、耳、聲、鼻、香、舌、味、身、觸、意、法，六內六外成六雙。論主用一偈立下六門——義、相、爾所、次第、略廣、應見（白話 §1）——然後逐門把「處」這個法門講到盡，門盡而法決。這是本論釋法數的標準機器：不是給一張名單，是把名單的名、量、序、開合、用法逐一定案。讀本單元，前七節是測量，末一節（應見）是測量之後的觀——座標畫好了，就看「我」還能放在哪裡。〔所見〕
§01 十二處之列與六門決擇之偈 → 白話 §1
十二處逐名列出，六雙相間：眼處對色處、耳處對聲處、鼻處對香處、舌處對味處、身處對觸處、意處對法處。隨後一偈立六門：依義、依相、依爾所、依次第、依略與廣、依應見而了知決擇之法（白話 §1）。〔讀法〕這一偈是本單元的目錄：以下七節就是六門逐一開演，每門講完都以「應當這樣依某門了知決擇之法」收——讀的時候抓住這個收句，就知道自己走到第幾門。
§02 逐處之別義——十二名之語釋 → 白話 §2
先依別義釋十二名：見故為眼——它味著色、使色顯明；現色故為色——它在轉為顏色之變異時把心中的情狀顯示出來；聞故為耳、發故為聲、嗅故為鼻、薰故為香、喚命故為舌、有情嘗它故為味；可厭的諸有漏法的來處故為身；被觸故為觸；知故為意；持自己的相故為法（白話 §2）。〔讀法〕每一個名都由它的作用掙來——眼不是一顆球，是「見」這件事的名；法不是一類東西，是「持自己的相」的名。十二名的語釋在全論此處首出，第 16 品講眼根等時就直接迴指這一段。
§03 通義之三釋——努力・伸展・引長 → 白話 §3
通義釋「處」（āyatana）之一名何以通於十二：心與心所諸法以眼色等一一者為門、為所緣而努力（起來、勤作、精勤）；眼色等把那些來到的諸法伸展開來、使之廣大；並且只要無始輪迴之苦還不還滅，它們就一直引長著它、使它轉起（白話 §3）。〔讀法〕這三義把「處」從靜態的場所講成動態的機器：處不是心停放的車位，是讓經驗——連同輪迴之苦——繼續開演的動力所在。第三義尤其重：十二處運轉一天，輪迴就延長一天。
§04 處之五義——住處・鑛・會處・生地・因 → 白話 §4
再依五義釋「處」：世間用法裡，住處（自在天之處）、鑛（金之處）叫「處」；教內用法裡，會處（飛鳥依止之處）、生地（南方是諸牛之處）、因（有其因時就在那裡作證）也叫「處」；而眼等對於心與心所，正是住處（其轉起繫屬於它而住著）、鑛（在它之中密集）、會處（依所依、門、所緣而集會）、生地（以它為依止、所緣而生起）、因（它們沒有時心心所也就沒有）——五義俱足，故眼是眼處、乃至法是法處（白話 §4）。〔讀法〕論主先舉世間語例再轉入法義，是要說明「處」不是生造的術語：你怎麼說「金礦」，就怎麼理解「眼是心的礦」。
§05 相與爾所——何以立十二 → 白話 §5
相門一句迴指：眼等之相、味、現起、近因已在〈蘊〉之品立過，本篇不重出（白話 §5；詳第 14 品）。爾所門答「為何是十二」：眼等也都是法，何不總說一個法處？——因為六識身的生起之門與所緣要各各確定：眼識路的識身，唯眼處是門、唯色處是所緣，餘四同式；第六識身則以有分意（意處之一分）為門、以不共的法處為所緣。六門六境，故立十二（白話 §5）。〔讀法〕十二不是名單湊出來的長度，是六識身各需一門一境的幾何必然——這一節是本單元裡最硬的一塊論證，也是「處」作為分類法的存在理由。
§06 次第——說次第之所以 → 白話 §6
十二處的排序是「說次第」（教學的次第），不是生起次第：眼處之境有見有對、最明顯，故先說；耳處等境無見有對，隨後；或者，眼耳能作見無上、聞無上之因、饒益最多，故居先；意處殿後，因為它是前五者的行境。外處的色聲香味觸則各自插在其內處之後，因為是其行處。也可以依識生起之因的確定看這個次第：「緣於眼與諸色，眼識生起」，乃至「緣於意與諸法，意識生起」（白話 §6）。〔讀法〕連「先講哪個」都有理由——本論的體例是：次第本身也是法義。
§07 略與廣——名色與無量之分 → 白話 §7
依略：意處與法處的一分屬名，餘處屬色——十二處收攏起來，唯是名色而已。依廣：眼處依種類唯是眼淨色，依緣、趣、部類、人則無量；意處依善、不善、異熟、唯作分八十九種，又開為一百二十一種（其全列在第 14 品）；色聲香味諸處依緣等無量；觸處依地火風三分；法處依受、想、行、細色與涅槃的自性而多分（白話 §7）。〔讀法〕一收一放之間，看見同一張座標系可以縮成兩個字（名色）、也可以放到無量——略是為了把握，廣是為了如實；兩頭都會用，才算會用這張系。
§08 應見——不來不出・無動作・空村與六生物 → 白話 §8
末門是「應見」：一切有為的處，應依不來、不出而見——生前不從何處來，滅後不往何處去，前際後際之中間繫緣而不自在地轉起；應依無動作、無營為而見——眼與色並不想「願識在我們的和合中生起」，也不為此作任何動作，只是法性如此：和合中識就出生了。再給四喻：內六處像空村（無常淨樂我之性）、外六處像破村的賊（是內處的加害者——「眼為可意與不可意的諸色所害」）；內六處像六種生物、外六處像其行處（白話 §8）。〔讀法〕前七節是測量，這一節是把測量的成果直接轉成觀法：座標系裡每一格都不來不出、無人操作——「見」在發生，而沒有一個「見者」在幕後推動。空村之喻是本單元的落點：把家門打開逐間看過，屋裡沒有住人。〔所見〕
給一般讀者
十二處是一張經驗的座標盤：任何一刻的經驗，都拆得成「哪個門」加「哪個境」——看是眼與色、聽是耳與聲、想是意與法，不重不漏。用法很簡單：下次說「我看見了」的時候，試著改說「眼、色、光與作意和合，眼識生起了」——同一件事，第二種說法裡找不到「我」的位置。這不是文字遊戲：本單元末節的空村之喻說的就是這個——門境都在、進出如常，屋裡卻沒有住人。界的座標（在門與境之外再立六識）是下一單元的事；四諦把這些座標收進「苦與苦之止息」，在第 16 品。
想讀本單元全文：白話 §1–§8 即十二處之列、六門之偈與義、相、爾所、次第、略廣、應見六門逐門開演的全段逐段全譯。
The bases are the entrances and exits of mind: the six internal are doors and the six external are objects; the twelve bases lay out all experience, leaving nowhere within them for an “I” to be placed
The Big Picture — The Coordinate System of the Ground of Wisdom, First Half
At the opening of the chapter on the aggregates, the ground of wisdom was established as the phenomena to be observed: aggregates, bases, elements, faculties, truths, dependent arising, and the rest (Chapter 14). The five aggregates have been laid out in that preceding chapter; this chapter continues with the bases and elements. This unit first unfolds the twelve bases: eye, visible form, ear, sound, nose, odor, tongue, taste, body, touch, mind, and phenomena, six internal and six external forming six pairs. In one verse the Commentator establishes six modes—meaning, characteristic, extent, order, brief and detailed treatment, and how they should be seen (vernacular §1)—and then takes the doctrinal scheme of “base” through each mode to its conclusion. This is the treatise’s standard machinery for explaining an enumeration: it does not merely give a list, but determines the list’s names, measure, order, expansion and contraction, and use one by one. In this unit, the first seven sections are measurement; the last, “how they should be seen,” is the contemplation that follows measurement. Once the coordinates have been drawn, where can an “I” still be placed? 〔Observation〕
§01 The List of the Twelve Bases and the Verse on the Six Modes of Analysis → Vernacular §1
The twelve bases are listed by name in alternating pairs: the eye base with the visible-form base, the ear base with the sound base, the nose base with the odor base, the tongue base with the taste base, the body base with the touch base, and the mind base with the phenomena base. A verse then establishes six modes: the analysis should be understood according to meaning, characteristic, extent, order, brief and detailed treatment, and how the bases should be seen (vernacular §1). 〔Reading〕 This verse is the unit’s table of contents. The following seven sections unfold these six modes in turn, and every mode closes with “the analysis should be understood in this way according to” that mode. Hold on to this closing phrase while reading, and you will always know which mode you have reached.
§02 The Distinctive Meaning of Each Base—Explanation of the Twelve Names → Vernacular §2
First, the twelve names are explained according to their distinctive meanings: it is the eye because it sees—it relishes visible form and makes it manifest; visible form displays form—when its color alters, it reveals the condition within the mind; the ear hears, sound is uttered, the nose smells, odor makes fragrant, the tongue summons life, and beings taste and relish taste; the body is the place of arrival for contemptible influx-tainted phenomena; touch is touched, mind knows, and phenomena bear their own characteristics (vernacular §2). 〔Reading〕 Each name earns its place through its function. The eye is not a ball but the name for “seeing”; phenomena are not one class of things but are so called because they “bear their own characteristics.” These etymologies of the twelve names first appear here in the treatise; when Chapter 16 discusses the eye faculty and the rest, it refers directly back to this passage.
§03 Three Explanations of the Common Meaning—Effort, Extension, and Prolongation → Vernacular §3
The common meaning explains why the single name “base” (āyatana) applies to all twelve. Mind and mental factors exert themselves on each of eye, visible form, and the rest, taking each as door and object—they arise, labor, and strive. Eye, visible form, and the rest extend the phenomena that have come, making them expand. And so long as the suffering of beginningless saṃsāra has not subsided, they keep prolonging it and causing it to proceed (vernacular §3). 〔Reading〕 These three meanings turn “base” from a static place into a dynamic machine. A base is not a parking place where mind stops; it is where experience—together with the suffering of saṃsāra—keeps unfolding. The third meaning carries particular weight: whenever the twelve bases operate for another day, saṃsāra is prolonged for another day.
§04 Five Meanings of Base—Abode, Mine, Meeting Place, Place of Birth, and Cause → Vernacular §4
“Base” is further explained through five meanings. In worldly usage, abode (the abode of Īśvara) and mine (a gold mine) are called a “base”; in the usage of the teaching, meeting place (where birds resort), place of birth (the southern region as the place of birth of cattle), and cause (when a cause is present, one realizes there) are also called a “base.” Eye and the rest have all five meanings in relation to mind and mental factors: they are abodes because mental phenomena dwell there in dependence on them; mines because mental phenomena are concentrated within them; meeting places because mental phenomena meet through basis, door, and object; places of birth because mental phenomena arise in dependence on them and with them as objects; and causes because without them mind and mental factors are absent. Thus the eye is both eye and base, and so on through phenomena as both phenomena and base (vernacular §4). 〔Reading〕 The Commentator first gives examples from ordinary usage and then turns to the doctrinal meaning, showing that “base” is not a manufactured technical word: understand “the eye is a mine for mind” in the same way that you understand “gold mine.”
§05 Characteristic and Extent—Why Twelve Are Established → Vernacular §5
The characteristic mode simply refers back: the characteristic, function, manifestation, and proximate cause of eye and the rest were established in the chapter on the aggregates and are not repeated here (vernacular §5; see Chapter 14). The mode of extent answers, “Why twelve?” Eye and the rest are all phenomena, so why not call everything one phenomena base? Because the door of arising and object of each of the six groups of consciousness must be individually determined. For the group within the eye-consciousness process, only the eye base is the door and only the visible-form base the object; the next four follow the same pattern. The sixth group has the life-continuum mind—one portion of the mind base—as its door and the phenomena base not shared with the others as its object. Six doors and six objects establish twelve (vernacular §5). 〔Reading〕 Twelve is not the length of a list assembled by convention. It is the geometric necessity that each of the six groups of consciousness requires one door and one object. This is the unit’s most rigorous argument and the reason for the existence of “base” as a classificatory scheme.
§06 Order—Why This Sequence Is Taught → Vernacular §6
The twelve bases follow an “order of teaching,” not an order of arising. The eye base comes first because its object is visible and resistant, hence the most evident; the ear base and the rest, whose objects are invisible and resistant, follow. Or the eye and ear come first because they are especially beneficial as causes for the unsurpassed in seeing and hearing; the three beginning with the nose follow. The mind base comes last because it is also the range of the first five. The external bases of visible form, sound, odor, taste, and touch are each inserted after their corresponding internal base because they are its range. The same sequence can be seen through the determined causes of consciousness: “Dependent on the eye and visible forms, eye-consciousness arises,” through “dependent on the mind and phenomena, mind-consciousness arises” (vernacular §6). 〔Reading〕 Even the question “Which one is taught first?” has a reason. In this treatise, sequence itself is doctrinal meaning.
§07 In Brief and in Detail—Name-and-Form and Its Measureless Divisions → Vernacular §7
In brief, the mind base and one part of the phenomena base belong to name, while all remaining bases belong to form: contracted, the twelve bases are only name-and-form. In detail, the eye base is only eye-sensitivity by kind but measureless according to condition, destination, class, and person; the mind base is eighty-ninefold by wholesome, unwholesome, resultant, and functional divisions, and one hundred and twenty-onefold when further expanded (the complete list is in Chapter 14); the visible-form, sound, odor, and taste bases are measureless according to conditions; the touch base is threefold as earth, fire, and air; and the phenomena base is variously divided according to feeling, perception, formations, subtle materiality, and nibbāna (vernacular §7). 〔Reading〕 In this movement of contraction and expansion, the same coordinate system can be reduced to two words—name-and-form—or opened into measureless divisions. Contraction makes it graspable; expansion makes it true to what is there. Only command of both ends is command of the system.
§08 How They Should Be Seen—No Coming or Going, No Agency, the Empty Village, and the Six Creatures → Vernacular §8
The final mode is “how they should be seen.” All conditioned bases should be seen as neither coming nor going: they come from nowhere before arising, go nowhere after dissolution, and between prior and later limits proceed dependently on conditions and without mastery. They should be seen as without agency and without undertaking: eye and visible form do not wish, “May consciousness arise from our conjunction,” and perform no action to produce it. It is simply the nature of phenomena that consciousness is born when they come together. Four similes follow. The internal six are like an empty village, devoid of the nature of permanence, purity, pleasure, and self; the external six are like village-raiding bandits, injuring the internal bases—“the eye is assailed by agreeable and disagreeable visible forms.” The internal six are also like the six creatures, and the external six like their ranges (vernacular §8). 〔Reading〕 The first seven sections measure; this section turns the measurements directly into contemplation. Every square in the coordinate system neither comes nor goes and has no operator: “seeing” occurs, but no “seer” stands behind it to make it happen. The empty-village simile is the unit’s destination. Open every door and inspect every room: no one lives in the house. 〔Observation〕
For the General Reader
The twelve bases form a coordinate grid for experience. Any moment of experience can be analyzed as “which door” plus “which object”: seeing is eye and visible form, hearing is ear and sound, thinking is mind and phenomena—with neither duplication nor omission. Its use is simple. The next time you say, “I saw it,” try instead, “Eye, visible form, light, and attention came together, and eye-consciousness arose.” The same event is described, but in the second description there is nowhere to locate an “I.” This is not wordplay. It is precisely what the empty-village simile at the end of the unit says: doors and objects are present, traffic proceeds as usual, yet no one lives inside. The coordinates of the elements—which add six kinds of consciousness to the doors and objects—belong to the next unit. The four truths gather these coordinates into “suffering and the cessation of suffering” in Chapter 16.
To read this unit in full: Vernacular §§1–8 is a complete, paragraph-by-paragraph translation of the list of twelve bases, the verse on six modes, and the full unfolding of meaning, characteristic, extent, order, brief and detailed treatment, and how they should be seen.
十八界The Eighteen Elements
全文五層 →Full five layers →界在門與境之外把「識」也立進座標：十八界拆到連「能知的心」都成了無命的一格
大局 — 慧地的座標系（下半）
前一單元的十二處，是六門對六境；本單元在每一雙門境之外再立其識——眼、色、眼識，耳、聲、耳識，如是五組，加意界、法界、意識界，成十八界。多出來的正是要害：十二處還可以讓人把「能知」藏在門後，十八界把識也攤在盤面上，連「能知的心」都成了一格一格可數的法。論主換了一偈、立七門——義、相等、次第、爾所與算、緣、應見（白話 §1）——體裁與前單元相承而目不全同：多了「算」與「緣」，因為識一入座標，法數與緣起的線就得交代。本單元也是全品的收束，品末奧書在焉。〔所見〕
§01 十八界之列與決擇之偈 → 白話 §1
十八界逐名列出，六組三三相隨：眼界、色界、眼識界，乃至身界、觸界、身識界，末以意界、法界、意識界收。一偈立七門：依義、依相等等、依次第、依爾所與算、依緣、依應見而了知決擇之法（白話 §1）。〔讀法〕與前單元的六門對讀：相門併入「相等等」、略廣門讓位給「算」、新增「緣」門——目錄的增刪本身就標出十八界與十二處所務之異。
§02 界之語義——荷擔與安置 → 白話 §2
別義同前式（見故為眼、現色故為色、眼之識為眼識）；通義釋「界」（dhātu）：它施設、它被持、它是施設之法、由它而被施設、或在它之中被安置。世間諸界如金銀之礦施設金銀，這些界則施設種種輪迴之苦；如重擔為擔者所持，它們為有情所荷擔；苦以它們為作具而被隨施設，施設了的苦又在它們之中被安置（白話 §2）。〔讀法〕「界」的語義全繞著苦轉：礦出的是苦、擔著的是苦、安置的還是苦——座標系不是中性的檔案櫃，它是輪迴之苦的產地與倉庫。
§03 界名之三比與「唯無命」之義 → 白話 §3
三重比況：外道所謂的「我」依自性不存在，界卻持著自己的自性；如世間雌黃、雄黃等山石之分稱「界」，智與所知之分也種種故稱「界」；如身體的津液、血液等互不同分之分稱「界」，五蘊自體之諸分亦然。而後點題：「界」這個詞唯是無命者的稱謂——世尊說「這個人是六界的」，正是為了根除命者之想（白話 §3）。〔讀法〕這一節把本品的刀口亮出來了：界說之所以立，不為分類而分類，是要在「人」字底下換上十八個無命的零件——名字還在，命者不在。
§04 相等與次第——因果之次 → 白話 §4
相等門一句迴指〈蘊〉之品（與前單元相門同式）。次第門：此處也唯說次第相應，而其理是因果的前後——眼界與色界是因，眼識界是果，故因先果後；一切處都是這樣（白話 §4）。〔讀法〕十二處的次第依明顯與饒益，十八界的次第依因果——同是「說次第」，理據隨法門而換，這正是逐門決擇的功夫所在。
§05 爾所之量——他處所說諸界皆攝於十八 → 白話 §5
經論他處另見諸界之名：光界、淨界、四無色處界、想受滅界；欲界、瞋恚界、害界、出離界、無瞋界、無害界；樂苦喜憂捨無明諸界；發勤、精勤、勇猛三界；劣中勝三界；地水火風空識六界；有為界、無為界；「世間是多界、異界」——既有這許多，何以唯限十八？答：一切自性上實有的界都攝在其中。逐一收編：光界即色界；淨界繫屬色等；無色處界之心是意識界、餘是法界；想受滅界自性不存在（唯二界之滅）；欲界或唯法界、或即十八界全體；出離界是法界亦是意識界；瞋恚乃至勇猛諸界是法界；劣中勝唯是十八界之等差（究竟義則不善的法界意識界劣、世間善無記與眼界等中、出世間的法界意識界勝）；地火風是觸界、水空是法界、識界是七識界之略攝；十七界與法界一分有為、無為界是法界一分；多界異界唯是十八界之差別（白話 §5）。〔讀法〕這是一場大收編：名目再多，實有的座標只有十八格——凡在經中另立名者，或是十八之別名，或是其一分，或（如想受滅界）根本不是一個自性法。讀者由此學到的不是十八這個數，是「查名入格」的手藝。
§06 破命者想與應機而說之偈 → 白話 §6
再答何以唯說十八：有些有情於以識知為自性的識上作命者之想，世尊為根除其長夜隨眠之想，顯示識依眼耳鼻舌身意界與意識界之差別而有多種、且繫緣而無常；又依所化者的意樂——堪受不太略不太廣之教者，為之說十八。偈云：祂以略與廣的方法隨宜顯示法，所化有情心中的闇為正法的威光所摧，剎那歸於消滅（白話 §6）。〔讀法〕同一個十八，兩個理由：一是治病（把「能知的我」拆成七個識界），二是應機（略廣得中）。前一單元之末說門境上無作者，本節進一步說連識也不是命者——十八界的成立本身就是破執的處方。
§07 算與緣——十八界之法數與緣之分 → 白話 §7
算門逐界給數：眼耳鼻舌身與色聲香味九界各一法、觸界三法（地火風）、五識界各二法（善不善異熟）、意界三法（五門轉向與二領受）、法界二十法（三無色蘊、十六細色、無為界）、意識界七十六法。緣門先說五門：眼界以不相應、前生、有、不離、依止、根六緣為眼識界之緣，色界以前生、有、不離、所緣四緣為緣，耳聲等同式；轉向意界以無間、等無間、無、離、無間親依止五緣為五識之緣，五識為領受意界之緣，領受為推度、推度為確定、確定為速行之緣，速行對無間之速行更加習行緣成六緣。意門則有分為轉向、轉向為速行之緣，皆以前五緣；法界以俱生、相互、依止、相應、有、不離等多方式為七識界之緣；眼界等及一分法界依所緣緣等為一分意識界之緣。且不僅門境是緣，光、空隙、風、水、地與作意也是——故先師說：緣於眼、色、光與作意，眼識生起，乃至緣於有分意、法與作意，意識生起。廣說讓給〈緣起〉之品（白話 §7）。〔讀法〕算門讓每一格有了法數，緣門讓格與格之間有了線——十八界至此不是靜物畫，是一張通了電的線路圖；五門心路（轉向、領受、推度、確定、速行）在這裡以緣的身分過了一遍，其全說在第 14 品，緣的廣說在第 17 品。
§08 應見——鼓鏡甘蔗鑽木諸譬 → 白話 §8
末門應見：一切有為的界，依離前際後際、依空無常淨樂我之性、依繫緣轉起而見。特別的譬喻成串：眼界如鼓面、色界如桴、眼識界如聲；如鏡面、臉與臉的影像；如甘蔗胡麻、榨機輪杆與汁油；如下鑽木、上鑽木與火——耳界等同法。意界是五識界的先行者與隨行者。法界之中：受蘊如箭如刺；想行二蘊如中箭之病人，凡夫之想又如空拳（生希求之苦）、如林中之鹿（取不如實之相）；諸行如把人投入炭火坑的人（投入結生）；生如為王人所追的賊（苦隨逐）、如毒樹之種；色如剃刀輪（種種禍之相）；無為界依不死、寂靜、安穩而見（是一切不利者的對治）。意識界如林中之猿（於所緣無定）、如劣馬（難調）、如擲空之杖（隨處墮落）、如舞臺伶人（與貪瞋等煩惱之裝相應）（白話 §8）。品末奧書：於為令善人歡喜而造的《清淨道論》中，慧之修習之章裡，名為處界之解釋的第十五品已竟。〔讀法〕鼓與聲、鏡與影、蔗與汁、鑽與火——四喻同說一件事：識是和合中現起的果，不是躲在門後的主人。而意識界的四喻（猿、馬、杖、伶人）值得單獨帶走：那個你以為最「是我」的心，論主給它的畫像是竄樹的猴子和上了裝的演員。〔所見〕
給一般讀者
十八界比十二處多立了六個識界，用意只有一個：把「能知的心」也放上解剖臺。用的時候取三聯：門、境、識——聽見聲音時，是耳界、聲界、耳識界三格和合，像鼓面、桴與聲，缺一則無，而三者裡沒有一個是「聽者」。若嫌十八格太繁，記住兩端即可：收，則一切界不出名色；觀，則格格離前際後際、空、繫緣——連意識界也只是林中之猿。根與諦把這張圖收進「苦與苦之止息」的軸心，請看下一品；緣的全圖在第 17 品。
想讀本單元全文：白話 §1–§8 即十八界之列與七門之偈、界之語義三重比況、他界收編、破命者想、算與緣、諸譬與品末奧書的全段逐段全譯。
Beyond door and object, the elements put consciousness itself onto the coordinate grid: the eighteen elements analyze even “the knowing mind” into one lifeless square
The Big Picture — The Coordinate System of the Ground of Wisdom, Second Half
The twelve bases of the preceding unit are six doors paired with six objects. This unit adds the corresponding consciousness to every pair: eye, visible form, eye-consciousness; ear, sound, ear-consciousness; and so through five triads; add mind element, phenomena element, and mind-consciousness element, for eighteen elements in all. What has been added is the crucial point. With the twelve bases, one might still conceal “the knower” behind the door; the eighteen elements spread consciousness itself across the grid, turning even “the knowing mind” into countable phenomena, square by square. The Commentator changes the verse and establishes seven modes—meaning, characteristic and the rest, order, extent, enumeration, conditions, and how the elements should be seen (vernacular §1). The form succeeds that of the preceding unit but does not exactly match it: “enumeration” and “conditions” are added, because once consciousness enters the grid, the count of phenomena and the lines of conditionality must be stated. This unit also closes the whole chapter and contains its final colophon. 〔Observation〕
§01 The List of the Eighteen Elements and the Verse on Analysis → Vernacular §1
The eighteen elements are listed in six groups of three: the eye element, visible-form element, and eye-consciousness element, through the body element, touch element, and body-consciousness element, closing with the mind element, phenomena element, and mind-consciousness element. A verse establishes seven modes: the analysis should be understood according to meaning, characteristic and the rest, order, extent and enumeration, conditions, and how the elements should be seen (vernacular §1). 〔Reading〕 Read this alongside the six modes of the preceding unit. The mode of characteristic is expanded to “characteristic and the rest,” brief and detailed treatment gives way to “enumeration,” and “conditions” is added. These changes in the table of contents themselves identify the different work performed by the eighteen elements and the twelve bases.
§02 The Meaning of Element—Bearing a Burden and Depositing → Vernacular §2
The distinctive meanings follow the preceding pattern: it is eye because it sees, visible form because it displays form, and eye-consciousness because it is the consciousness of the eye. The common meaning explains “element” (dhātu): it arranges, it is borne, it is an arranging, through it something is arranged, or in it something is deposited. As worldly mines arrange gold and silver, these elements arrange the manifold suffering of saṃsāra. As a burden is borne by its bearer, the elements are borne by beings. Suffering is arranged with them as instruments, and the suffering thus arranged is deposited within them (vernacular §2). 〔Reading〕 Every strand in the word’s meaning turns around suffering: what the mine produces is suffering, what is borne is suffering, and what is deposited is suffering. The coordinate grid is not a neutral filing cabinet; it is both the place where the suffering of saṃsāra is produced and the storehouse where it is held.
§03 Three Comparisons for the Name Element and the Meaning “Merely Lifeless” → Vernacular §3
There are three comparisons. The “self” posited by other sectarians does not exist by intrinsic nature, but the elements bear their own intrinsic nature. Just as the various mountain minerals of the world, such as orpiment and realgar, are called elements, the divisions of knowledge and what is known are called elements because they too are varied. And just as fluids, blood, and other mutually dissimilar parts of the body are called elements, the parts of the individuality called the five aggregates are elements because each is delimited by a different characteristic. Then comes the point: the word “element” is a designation for what is merely lifeless. The Blessed One says, “This person has six elements,” precisely to eradicate the notion of a living principle (vernacular §3). 〔Reading〕 This section reveals the blade of the entire chapter. The element teaching is not classification for classification’s sake; it replaces what lies beneath the word “person” with eighteen lifeless components. The name remains, but no living principle remains.
§04 Characteristic and the Rest, and Order—The Sequence of Cause and Effect → Vernacular §4
The mode of characteristic and the rest refers back in one sentence to the chapter on the aggregates, just like the mode of characteristic in the preceding unit. As to order, only the order of teaching is appropriate here, and its rationale is the before and after of cause and effect: the eye element and visible-form element are causes; the eye-consciousness element is the effect. Causes therefore precede effect, and the same applies throughout (vernacular §4). 〔Reading〕 The twelve bases are ordered by evidentness and benefit, while the eighteen elements are ordered by cause and effect. Both are “orders of teaching,” but the rationale changes with the doctrinal scheme. This is precisely the work of analysis mode by mode.
§05 Their Extent—Every Element Taught Elsewhere Is Included in the Eighteen → Vernacular §5
Elsewhere the discourses and treatises name many other elements: luminosity and beauty; the four immaterial bases and the cessation of perception and feeling; sensuality, ill will, harmfulness, renunciation, non-ill-will, and harmlessness; pleasure, pain, joy, grief, equanimity, and ignorance; initiation, launching forth, and advancing; inferior, middle, and superior; earth, water, fire, air, space, and consciousness; conditioned and unconditioned; and “a world of many and diverse elements.” With so many names, why limit the count to eighteen? Because every element that really exists by intrinsic nature is included within them. Each is assigned in turn: luminosity is the visible-form element; beauty is connected with visible form and the rest; in the immaterial-base elements, mind is the mind-consciousness element and the remainder the phenomena element; the cessation-of-perception-and-feeling element is no phenomenon existing by intrinsic nature, but only the cessation of two elements; the sensuality element is either the phenomena element alone or all eighteen; the renunciation element is the phenomena element and also the mind-consciousness element; the elements from ill will through advancing are the phenomena element; inferior, middle, and superior are gradations of the eighteen—in the ultimate sense, unwholesome phenomena and mind-consciousness are inferior, mundane wholesome and indeterminate phenomena together with eye and the rest are middle, and supramundane phenomena and mind-consciousness are superior; earth, fire, and air are touch, while water and space are phenomena; consciousness is the seven consciousness elements in brief; seventeen elements plus part of phenomena are conditioned, while the unconditioned is part of phenomena; and many and diverse elements are only differentiations of the eighteen (vernacular §5). 〔Reading〕 This is a comprehensive act of reassignment. However many names occur, only eighteen squares contain what really exists: another scriptural name is either a different name for one of the eighteen, one portion of it, or—as with the cessation-of-perception-and-feeling element—not itself a phenomenon with intrinsic nature. What the reader learns here is not merely the number eighteen but the craft of assigning names to their proper squares.
§06 Eradicating the Notion of a Living Principle and the Verse on Teaching According to Disposition → Vernacular §6
There is another reason for stating only eighteen. Some beings conceive a living principle in consciousness, whose nature is cognizing. To eradicate the notion that has lain dormant through the long night, the Blessed One shows that consciousness is manifold according to the eye, ear, nose, tongue, body, and mind elements and the mind-consciousness element, and that it is impermanent because it depends on conditions. He also teaches according to the dispositions of those to be guided: for those suited to a teaching neither too brief nor too detailed, he teaches eighteen. The verse says that he shows the Dhamma in brief and detailed ways according to what is fitting, and the darkness in the hearts of those to be guided, struck by the radiance of true Dhamma, dissolves in a moment (vernacular §6). 〔Reading〕 The same eighteen has two reasons: it treats an illness, by analyzing the “I that knows” into seven consciousness elements, and it suits the audience by holding a middle course between brevity and detail. The preceding unit ends by saying that no agent stands among doors and objects; this section goes further: consciousness itself is not a living principle. Establishing the eighteen elements is itself a prescription for abandoning attachment.
§07 Enumeration and Conditions—The Number of Phenomena in the Eighteen Elements and Their Conditional Relations → Vernacular §7
The mode of enumeration gives a count for each element. The nine eye, ear, nose, tongue, body, visible-form, sound, odor, and taste elements are one phenomenon each; touch is three phenomena, earth, fire, and air; the five sense-consciousness elements are two each, wholesome and unwholesome resultants; the mind element is three, five-door adverting and the two kinds of receiving; the phenomena element is twenty, the three immaterial aggregates, sixteen kinds of subtle materiality, and the unconditioned element; the mind-consciousness element is seventy-six. The mode of conditions first treats the five doors. The eye element conditions eye-consciousness by six conditions—dissociation, prenascence, presence, nondeparture, support, and faculty—while visible form does so by four—prenascence, presence, nondeparture, and object; ear and sound follow the same pattern. The adverting mind element conditions the five sense-consciousness elements by proximity, contiguity, absence, disappearance, and proximity decisive support; the sense consciousnesses condition receiving, receiving conditions investigating, investigating determining, and determining impulsion; one impulsion conditions the next by those five plus the repetition condition. At the mind door, life-continuum conditions adverting, and adverting conditions impulsion, by the preceding five. The phenomena element conditions the seven consciousness elements in many ways; eye and the rest and part of the phenomena element also condition part of mind-consciousness. Nor are door and object the only conditions: light, aperture, air, water, earth, and attention also serve. Hence the earlier teachers say that eye, visible form, light, and attention condition eye-consciousness; the sequence continues through the final case, in which life-continuum mind, phenomena, and attention condition mind-consciousness. The detailed account belongs to the chapter on dependent arising (vernacular §7). 〔Reading〕 Enumeration gives each square its count; conditions draw the lines between squares. The eighteen elements are no longer a still life but an electrified circuit. The five-door cognitive process—adverting, receiving, investigating, determining, and impulsion—passes through here in the role of conditions. Its full account is in Chapter 14, and the full account of conditions in Chapter 17.
§08 How They Should Be Seen—The Similes of the Drum, Mirror, Sugarcane, and Fire Sticks → Vernacular §8
The final mode concerns seeing. All conditioned elements should be seen as devoid of a prior and later limit, empty of the nature of permanence, purity, pleasure, and self, and proceeding in dependence on conditions. Then comes a chain of similes. The eye element is like a drumhead, visible form like the drumstick, and eye-consciousness like sound; or like a mirror, a face, and its reflection; or sugarcane and sesame, the press’s wheel and shaft, and juice and oil; or the lower fire stick, upper fire stick, and fire. The same applies to the ear and the rest. The mind element is forerunner and follower of the five sense-consciousness elements. Within the phenomena element, feeling is like an arrow and thorn; perception and formations are like a sick person struck by them; an ordinary person’s perception is like an empty fist, generating the suffering of expectation, and like a deer in the forest, grasping a sign contrary to reality; formations are like someone casting a person into a pit of glowing coals, because they cast one into rebirth-linking; birth is like a thief pursued by the king’s men, because suffering follows it, and like the seed of a poisonous tree; materiality is like a razor wheel, as a sign of manifold calamity; the unconditioned element should be seen as deathless, peace, and security, the opposite of every harm. The mind-consciousness element is like a monkey in the forest, with no fixed object; a bad horse, difficult to tame; a stick thrown into the air, falling wherever it may; and an actor on a stage, costumed in defilements such as greed and ill will (vernacular §8). The chapter’s colophon follows: in the Visuddhimagga, composed to bring joy to good people, within the division on the development of wisdom, the fifteenth chapter, named the exposition of bases and elements, is concluded. 〔Reading〕 Drum and sound, mirror and reflection, sugarcane and juice, fire sticks and fire: all four similes say the same thing. Consciousness is an effect manifesting when conditions come together, not a master concealed behind the door. The four portraits of mind-consciousness—monkey, horse, thrown stick, and actor—are worth carrying away by themselves. The mind that seems most like “me” is pictured by the Commentator as a monkey leaping through the forest and an actor in costume. 〔Observation〕
For the General Reader
The eighteen elements add six consciousness elements to the twelve bases for one purpose: to place “the knowing mind” on the dissecting table as well. In use, take a triad—door, object, consciousness. When a sound is heard, the ear element, sound element, and ear-consciousness element come together like drumhead, drumstick, and sound. Without any one of them there is no hearing, yet none of the three is a “hearer.” If eighteen squares seem too many, remember the two ends: contracted, all elements are no more than name-and-form; contemplated, every square is devoid of a prior and later limit, empty, and dependent on conditions—even the mind-consciousness element is only a monkey in the forest. The faculties and truths gather this chart onto the axis of “suffering and the cessation of suffering” in the next chapter; the complete map of conditions is in Chapter 17.
To read this unit in full: Vernacular §§1–8 is a complete, paragraph-by-paragraph translation of the list of eighteen elements and verse on seven modes, the meanings and three comparisons for element, the inclusion of other elements, the eradication of the notion of a living principle, enumeration and conditions, the similes, and the chapter’s final colophon.